Transportation's Future

Public Has Important Role In Developing Plans

May 12, 1994

An important step is under way this week in planning the future of transportation in Hampton Roads. A Gallup poll is being taken to identify patterns of travel in an area extending from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk on the south to James City and Gloucester counties on the north.

Pollsters will select representative households and survey them with a series of phone calls. As many as 12,000 persons, young and old, will be asked to record for several days where they go, how often they go out and how long and how far they travel. The information will be fed into a computer to identify transportation patterns in Hampton Roads.

By the middle of 1996, this information, along with data from other sources such as traffic counts, will be used by the regional Hampton Roads Crossing Study Committee to identify options for transportation. This work is necessary now because building roads, rail lines and bridges takes so long. In the case of Hampton Roads, the year 2015 could see more lanes at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, a new bridge-tunnel or a commuter rail system along the CSX tracks on the Peninsula or along Route 44 in Virginia Beach.

Information is key. Dwight Farmer, the area's chief transportation planner, says a comprehensive model of transportation patterns in Hampton Roads hasn't been compiled since the 1960s; it takes time for new patterns to emerge, such as increases in the number of vehicles and of people working outside the home. The Gallup poll, made possible by a federal grant, is a welcome opportunity to update the information needed for planning. We encourage the public to participate if called upon.